Impenitence, results of

The seriousness of the failure to repent is frequently underlined in Scripture, which provides numerous examples of impenitence and its consequences.

Warnings against impenitence

Hebrews 12:25 See also 2 Chronicles 30:6–9; Jeremiah 4:1, Jeremiah 18:9–10; Ezekiel 14:6; Hosea 14:1–2; Malachi 3:7; Luke 13:1–5; Hebrews 3:7–19; Psalm 95:7–8; Revelation 2:5, Revelation 2:16

See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven?

Results of impenitence

Storing up wrath for the day of judgment

Romans 2:5 See also 2 Chronicles 24:20, 2 Chronicles 36:16–17; Job 36:12; Proverbs 1:24–26; Amos 4:9; Romans 1:24; 2 Peter 2:21

But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Condemnation

Matthew 11:20

Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed, because they did not repent.

Hardness of heart

Matthew 13:13–15 See also Hebrews 3:7–11

This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’

Spiritual blindness

John 12:40 See also Romans 11:8; Revelation 3:17

“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they cannot see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.”

Being forsaken by God

2 Kings 17:13–20; 2 Chronicles 29:6–9

Examples of impenitence

Exodus 8:15 Pharaoh; Judges 2:19; 1 Samuel 8:19; Nehemiah 9:26–29; Daniel 9:13–14; 2 Chronicles 33:23 Amon; 2 Chronicles 36:13 Zedekiah; Jeremiah 6:15 inhabitants of Jerusalem; Matthew 21:31 the elders and chief priests; Luke 18:18 the hard-hearted; Romans 1:18–23 the pagans; Revelation 2:21–27 Jezebel, the false prophetess; Revelation 9:20–21, Revelation 16:8–11